The Metamorphosis of Empires

ASERI, as part of the ASERIncontra review, is pleased to present the volume

The Metamorphosis of Empires
New wars and legal catastrophes

by Pier Paolo Portinaro
Solferino Editore

Monday 10 November 2025, 5.30 p.m.
in ASERI, Via San Vittore 18, MILAN

There is no live streaming
 

Introduces:
Damiano Palano, ASERI Director

Speakers:
Pier Paolo Portinaro, Professor of Political Philosophy, University of Turin

Lorenzo Ornaghi, Honorary President ASERI, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore

Valentina Villa, Assistant Professor of History of Political Institutions, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart

The book:
Speaking of empires traditionally means alluding to powers that have large territorial extensions, control their resources and tend to consider their borders inviolable inwards but always expandable outwards, by virtue of some cultural mission to be accomplished. Global history is the history of empires and within it the protagonism of the nation states, which arose in the modern age and are now in evident decline, represents only a parenthesis in universal history. To analyze the change of epoch that is overwhelming us, Pier Paolo Portinaro reads recent events through this interpretation and proposes a reading of political and war events in the key of the philosophy of history. This gives rise to a lucid reflection on the theme of war and law, which highlights how much the ongoing conflicts are jeopardizing the founding principles of international humanitarian law, radically challenged by the new dislocations of power.
An irreversible drift, the one that the contemporary world seems to have taken? No, if it is true that international relations, like all things that are in history, are not condemned to fixity and crystallization but exposed to slow yet inexorable changes. Where the courage of the new is lacking, regression takes hold, where reforms of the international order fail, the revisionism of the imperial powers triumphs, and nevertheless historical experience shows that even autocracies are exposed to crises and decline. This is precisely where the challenge that Europe is called upon to face lies: to create a democratic empire, a new empire of law, to facilitate the transition from the current pandemic disorder to a rebalanced multipolar order.

The author:
Pier Paolo Portinaro was a professor of Political Science at the University of Freiburg i. B., of Political Sociology at the University of Mainz, of Political Philosophy at the University of Pisa and since 1992 he has been teaching Political Philosophy at the University of Turin, where he coordinated the Doctorate in Political Studies. History and theory. He carried out research activities at the Universities of Dresden and Konstanz for many years. He is a national member of the Academy of Sciences of Turin. Among his publications Il labirinto delle istituzioni nella storia europea, il Mulino, Bologna 2007, Introduzione a Bobbio, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2008, Breviario di politica, Morcelliana, Brescia 2009, I conti con il passato. Vendetta, amnesty, justice, Feltrinelli, Milan 2011, La giustizia introvabile, Celid, Turin 2012, L'imperativo di uccire. Genocide and democide in history. Laterza, Rome-Bari 2017, Le mani su Machiavelli. Una critica dell'Italian Theory, Donzelli, Roma 2018, Italia incivile. The endless war between elites and people, Ananke, Turin 2019, The lexicon of power. The art of command from antiquity to globalization, Carocci, Rome 2021.

Participation is free upon registration:
Info: info.aseri@unicatt.it